A federal arrest warrant has been issued for a Spokane man suspected of sabotaging two giant electrical transmission towers by pulling bolts out of the towers' legs, the FBI said Thursday.

Michael Devlyn Poulin, 62, is believed to have been the man spotted by witnesses near towers in the Sacramento Valley city of Anderson on Monday and in Klamath Falls, Ore., on Sunday, according the FBI.

Police statewide already had been on the lookout for Poulin's gray 1997 Toyota pickup. The truck's description came from three men who spotted a saboteur at the Anderson tower and chased him onto Interstate 5 Monday.

Anderson police said 13 bolts had been removed from the tower's legs, but the structure did not topple. An FBI alert sent to law enforcement officials in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Nevada on Thursday said Poulin has a criminal history including attempted murder and use of destructive devices causing mayhem.

That description, and the suggestion by some law enforcement officials that Poulin was possibly involved in an act of domestic terrorism, surprised some of those who know Poulin as a dedicated progressive activist in Washington and, before that, in the Bay Area.

Steelee Faltis, an Oakland artist, worked with Poulin for several years, creating anti-corporate online comics and bumper stickers.

Faltis described Poulin as a dedicated activist who was a regular at Bay Area protests in support of radio station KPFA and elsewhere, but who he had not known to be involved in vandalism.

"If he was trying to do anything, it was just to send a message," he said.

"Calling him a domestic terrorist is a little extreme. ... I think this whole incident, if he's involved in it, would have been overlooked or considered a minor crime if it wasn't for Sept. 11."

But FBI spokeswoman LaRae Quy said the FBI doesn't consider the incident minor.

"Any time you see the potential for damage, especially in light of what happened last summer with the blackout ... it has to be taken seriously," she said. "It's no longer a prank when you start to endanger people's lives and livelihoods."